Bli plusmedlem
Logga in

Limited in many ways

Review: Motorola Moto Watch Fit - Smartwatch under 100 EUR

After many years, Motorola is re-entering the smartwatch market. They are doing so with a small and lightweight watch that has long battery life.

Erik Mörner
Published Modified

Moto Watch Fit works not only with Motorola's Android phones but also with other manufacturers' Android mobiles, though not with iPhone. The fact that the watch has a long battery life is a first sign that the features are relatively limited. The price is also just under 1000 kronor. 

Low expectations are barely met

This is not a watch you can expect much from. You cannot install any apps and the health functions are more about collected statistics and less about actual analysis or guidance. Still, you can definitely benefit from Moto Watch Fit for everyday exercise and workouts. It has GPS so it can measure my runs and it does so with good precision. The sensors in the watch also ensure that heart rate and step count are continuously recorded so I can, if I want, follow them during the day directly on the watch's screen on the watch face.

During my running sessions, the watch shows heart rate, distance, calories burned, and pace, and I particularly notice that it is good at pausing the workout when I have to stop for a red light or for another reason. You can control music playback from the watch, but it requires you to first start music playback from your phone that you have with you. The watch itself has no music player or ability to store music. There are also neither speakers nor a microphone in the watch.

The controls for music playback are available when I swipe in training mode, but otherwise the watch's multitasking capabilities are very limited. When I have a workout session running, I can't, for example, start a timer or check the weather app without first ending the workout. At least I can see the time directly in the training app, as the current time is also displayed in the training view.

The app on the phone is called Moto Watch

After training, all my workout sessions with statistics are collected in the Moto Watch app on the phone, but there it is more or less stuck without being of any real use. I can't share my workouts to apps like Runkeeper, Strava, or similar, and the Moto Watch app itself doesn't provide me with any analyses or trends. In practice, Moto Watch Fit is more of a pedometer than a real smartwatch. At least the information can be synced to the cloud via my Motorola account, so it's possible to switch phones without losing all training data. If we're lucky, Motorola might also expand analyses in future software updates.

Limitations and long battery life

Related articles

The functions available in the watch, apart from training registration and music playback on the phone, are, for example, weather, timer, alarm, and flashlight. On the health side, the watch can monitor your heart rate, sleep, blood oxygen level, and stress level. Additionally, the watch can display app notifications from your phone when it's nearby, but you can't reply to any notifications; you have to do that on the phone. The app notifications are very limited, and I often receive junk notifications that don't appear on the phone. The watch shows notifications when apps do things in the background. So, for example, when WhatsApp does a backup, I get a notification on the watch about it. Even if it doesn't generate a notification visible on the phone. The same thing happens when Instagram uploads a picture in the background or when Snapchat updates its location in the background. No ping on the phone, but still a buzz on the watch and a visible notification there.

Given the limitations of this watch, the battery life is long, according to Motorola up to 16 days, and this matches my experience during testing. The watch charges quickly, and if I'm not near a power outlet, I can even do it by plugging the charging cable into the phone's USB-C port to quickly get going again. Charging is done against the back of the watch with a special connector, so you must have the charging cable that comes with it and cannot charge the watch wirelessly. 

product reviews android product tests motorola moto watch fit watches wristbands motorola

Latest reviews

Top How-tos

100 latest articles